


Cobweb Tainted Thoughts

by SnowyOtakuKitten



Category: Short Stories - Fandom, The Monkey's Paw - W. W. Jacobs
Genre: Sequel, everyone is an OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 14:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17603081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyOtakuKitten/pseuds/SnowyOtakuKitten
Summary: A sequel to an Epilogue I wrote for The Monkey's Paw and posted.Anne-Marie Davidson and Nathalie Harlow prove that no matter what happens your actions have consequences. Maybe just not for you.





	Cobweb Tainted Thoughts

The sun was shining, and the leaves adorning the trees outside were a lovely emerald green. It was a wonderfully peaceful day. Peaceful enough to be horribly boring. Well, Anne-Marie found it boring, though other people may disagree.   
Ann (Anne-Marie) was what one would call ‘stylishly tousled’. Her black hair fell about an inch past her jaw and rarely needed grooming. Her eyes were slightly tilted and a deep green color that was a mix of forest green and emerald. Her skin could be compared to that of a porcelain doll, but nobody said that out loud. The last person who did, had a book thrown at him to show that Ann was decidedly not a delicate doll. Though, the semi-permanent scowl on her face may also have discouraged people from voicing that opinion. Right now, she was lying on her bed staring fixedly at the ceiling, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a leafy green off-the-shoulder top, hands folded behind her head. Ann really had nothing to do. She had read all the books in the house, finished her summer homework, and gone through her collection of what Nat called ‘cool old stuff’.  
Nathalie ‘Nat’ Harlow was Ann’s best, and really, only, friend. Ann had first met Nat in the park. Nat had been sitting on a bench and the sunlight hit her in a way that seemed to make her freckles glow on her tanned skin and her fiery hair look as if it was ablaze, matching her eyes that could be compared to chips of blue ice. With her green sundress and bare feet, one might have thought she was a fairy of sorts. The fairy-esque feeling had been kind of ruined by the mechanical engineering book on her lap and music box that was literally in pieces next to her. They had spent the next three hours putting the music box back together and chatting about seemingly random topics. Ann found most people in the small town they lived in boring, but Nat was too chatty and fun to be boring.   
Back to the topic at hand: Ann was bored. Nat was in Germany; she had mentioned something about visiting cousins. After returning from Europe earlier in the summer, Ann had broken up with Tyler (AKA. jerk) and he had moved to Florida. Good for him. And...Europe, of course. She had found this totally awesome weird paw-thing in Europe!   
I forgot about that old thing. Didn’t I find it in some old abandoned house in the woods?  
Ann mused to herself as she dragged herself off the bed and ambled toward her suitcase, which she had yet to unpack. She riffled through the pockets and pulled out the little foot that was still an icky brown color and wrapped in old bandages. She held it up to her scrutinizing dark jade eyes. And it was…   
Still boring.  
“Ugh,” Ann groaned, slouching back to the bed and flopping on it with a muffled thump. Digging an arm into the bed, she managed to flip herself over and resume her ceiling-staring. As her fingers turned the paw over in her hand, and her eyes trailed along a cobweb that had invaded one of the corners where the ceiling meets a wall. The only sound available to slice through the silence that had encroached upon her room were the muttered words: “I wish something interesting would happen.”  
~

It was Tuesday, and to Ann that was an important fact. Today, Nat would be returning from Germany and she would no longer have to be bored. One could never be bored around Nat and her endless stream of chatter. She sat on their designated-meeting-spot bench in the park and waited. Her hand curled around the mummified paw in her pocket, which she hadn’t put down the past few days. Since she had pulled it out of her suitcase it seemed… different. Ann didn’t have to wait much longer because Nat jogged through the park entrance and headed toward Ann, customary grin on her face. Today she wore a cornflower blue dress, the cloth printed with wisteria flowers, which swirled around her legs as she ran toward Ann.   
“Ann!” Nat shouted as she neared the bench, slowing her steps.  
“Hey.” Ann raised a hand in greeting, mouth already stretching into a smile.  
“Oh my God Ann, it so good to see you! Germany was, like, so weird, and Mom and Dad stopped to talk with everyone!” Nat proclaimed as she sank onto the waiting seat, her hands fluttering around like butterflies, “Even people they didn’t know!”  
Ann hummed in acknowledgment, letting friend continue her spiel.  
“My cousins were super awesome though. One of them even has pink hair, like, bright pink! And they live in this super old house with a bunch of cool old stuff; y’know, like the stuff you collect!”  
That caught Ann’s attention,   
“Was there anything worth looking at?” She inquired as Nat paused to breathe.  
Nat’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Oh yeah, there were lamps and jewelry and so much other stuff! But they wouldn’t let me have any of it.”  
Ann’s shoulders slumped. So much for new and not-boring things.  
“They did let me have this necklace, but it's a spider necklace and you hate spiders.”  
That was true, Ann loathed spiders. They were tiny and crawled and had way too many legs for her to be comfortable around them and got cobwebs everywhere and were just spiders. Queue shudder. Nat could definitely keep the necklace.  
“See?” Nat held up a little spider charm hanging from a chain on her neck. At first glance, it was just a spider (ick), but if you looked closer you could see the fine metalwork and engravings delicately carved into it. It was obviously old and Ann would probably be all over it, if not for the disgusting shape.   
“You can keep it,” Ann agreed. Did it just move? Yup, Nat can keep that. I don’t want it near me. It's not just the spider thing, it just feels creepy. She thought. Meanwhile, Ann could tell that Nat had moved onto other topics, like the food in Germany,   
“It was so good, but there was this spicy thing…” Her hands waved around making exaggerated motions to go with her excited words, but Ann was only somewhat paying attention. The spider necklace still creeped her out, especially the way Nat’s hand reached up to tug on it every few minutes and how the legs seemed to move. Ugh, spiders.  
~  
It had been one week since Nat had returned from her family trip. Ann’s parents were still on a business trip to London. Ann met up with Nat every day and they explored the library, park, and occasionally the edge of the forest. The mummified monkey’s paw (they had looked up what kind of paw it was in the library) now sat on Ann’s dresser, still dusty and mildly boring.   
That nasty spider web in the corner of her ceiling, on the other hand, would not go away. It was infuriating. Ann had taken a rag and pulled the whole thing down, only for it to show up an hour later, good as new. Not only that, but she had found more. In the kitchen, the living room, and even in the bathroom. Nat came over to help her take them down, but that just seemed to speed up the process of their creation. The worst things about the whole fiasco were the fact that they hadn’t actually seen any spiders at all, and that Nat never took off that damn necklace.   
It was more than that, Nat reached up and tangled her fingers in it every few minutes and wouldn’t even consider taking it off. Ann had mentioned the prospect one afternoon and Nat looked at her like she had kicked a puppy or committed some other unspeakable horrible act. The only thing that had come from the constant necklace fondling was the discovery of the words ‘Veraltet Spinne’ carved in the belly of the spider. They had dug up a German dictionary in the library and found that the words meant ‘archaic spider’.  
~  
“C’mon Nat! It’s just a piece of jewelry! You don’t need to wear it swimming!”  
Nat gave Ann that you-just-kicked-my-puppy look and whined- literally whined: “But Ann… it's important!”   
“In what way?”  
“It just is!”  
Ann scrubbed a hand over her face and groaned. She hated that necklace, she really did.   
“Nat…”  
“Oh, just shut up!” Nat snarled at her stomping off, leaving Ann staring at her shock rippling across her face.   
Wait, did she snarl? Nat never snarls. In fact, I didn’t even know she could.  
Ann went home instead of swimming and dropped on her bed once again.   
Nat acted mean. Nat never acts mean. And over something stupid like a necklace? Nat always considers other people’s feelings. She knows the necklace bothers me, so why is she still wearing it everywhere? In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen her wear any jewelry at all. Only the necklace, Ann thought bitterly.  
Ann heaved a sigh and rolled onto her stomach, thinking about how Nat glared at her and snarled with those hard amethyst eyes that looked like fire.   
Wait, amethyst? Nat’s eyes are blue, like blue ice. They’re definitely not purple. Was I imagining things?   
Ann’s nose scrunched up as she inwardly mused about Nat’s eye color, teeth gnawing on her lip. Eventually, mind made up, she rolled off the bed and stood up, fully intending to find Nat and figure out the strange happenings. At least, that was the plan. Until she saw the spider. The spider that was easily the length of her pointer finger and sitting on her dresser next to the mummified paw.   
She ever-so-calmly reached out, grabbed her math textbook, and slammed it onto the spider as hard as she could. No, she most certainly didn’t shriek and panic for a moment like a little girl before doing so, I don’t know what you’ve been drinking. But the only thing that mattered, was that there was a spider on her dresser. And then there wasn’t. Ann peeled her textbook off the dresser, a repulsive glob of spider-mush now sat on the wood, some of it dripping off her textbook. She gagged, figuring that spiders should probably not be that liquidy,  
“Ewww!”  
Ann dropped the book back on the now very dead spider and ran to the kitchen. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and raced back to her room. Flipping the book over, she scrunched up some paper towels and scrubbed them against her dresser in an attempt to get the goo off. After she did the same with a sponge she groaned, because of course the spider mush stained her dresser. Ann turned back to her goal of talking with Nat, only to glance outside the window and see the darkened sky. It was nighttime- or at least, close to it. Suddenly tired by the day’s events, she scowled and dropped onto her bed, deciding to face her problems tomorrow.  
~  
Nat was perched on a large rock on the outskirts of the forest, next to a pond. Ann had called her earlier that morning and asked if they could talk. Nat had agreed and cited the pond as their meeting spot. She was waiting for Ann to show up, bare feet dangling over the water, sneakers, and socks abandoned in the grass. The late morning sunlight made the glassy surface of the pond shimmer and sparkle. Her fingers curled around the necklace around her neck. She knew Ann didn’t like it. Indigo eyes scanned the edges or the clearing searching for black hair and pale skin. Nat sighed and tugged on the spider charm when she didn’t spot Ann.   
Ann made her mad yesterday. She was just so inconsiderate of Nat’s feelings! Ann didn’t understand how important the necklace was.   
It’s okay.   
Nat’s thoughts whirled around in her head, tainted by shades of purple and sticky strands of cobweb.   
If Ann doesn’t understand, then she’s not worth being friends with. The necklace is more important. A smile curled across her face as she reached that conclusion, indigo eyes darkened into a shade that might be considered violet and her fingers tugged on the necklace again.  
~  
Ann jogged toward the pond, waving at Nat, who was already sitting on one of the rocks surrounding the pond. Her bare feet dangled over the pond, its green-blue tinted waters seemed to match her teal dress. Ann pulled herself up onto a neighboring rock as Nat turned to look at her and smile. Her eyes were a soft violet that stood out on her face, they made a surprisingly pretty picture mixed with the flaming auburn of her hair and splatters of freckles.  
“Hey,” Ann said, smiling awkwardly.  
Nat smiled back, “I’m sorry for snapping at you yesterday, Ann.”  
Her tone set Ann on edge. It was condescending, like an adult trying to make a child who was acting silly understand something. Ann ignored it, Nat would never talk like that.   
Right?  
“It’s fine,” Ann responded, “don’t worry about it.”  
Nat’s smile brightened at that, “Oh! Then you understand, right?”  
“Understand what?”  
Her smile stretched even wider and her head tilted to the side, “That the necklace is important, of course!”   
Ann’s smile faltered at that. Sure, a necklace was nothing to get worked up over, but Nat wore it everywhere. She seemed obsessed with it sometimes, it was just so un-Nat-like. The hand in her jacket pocket curled around a mummified paw. She didn’t know why but she had snatched it off her dresser earlier and shoved it in her pocket.   
“I know that you find the necklace important, Nat,” Ann started out hesitantly, “But the way you carry it everywhere makes you seem kind of obsessed with it. It’s creepy and really not like you at all.”  
Nat’s smile didn’t change in the slightest, she just held up her hands in a placating gesture, “Don’t worry Ann, I’m perfectly fine!”  
“But Na-”  
Nat cut off whatever Ann was trying to say, tone becoming condescending once again, “Really, Ann, I’m fine. I promise!” She lowered her hands, continuing with: “You don’t have to worry at all, I’m not obsessed or anything.”  
Ann directed a breath of air toward a chunk of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes as she contemplated the best response.   
“Okay.” Was what finally came out of her mouth.  
Nat beamed at Ann’s acceptance of her words, “Lovely! I knew you’d get it! I’m sorry, but I promised Mum that I would get around to weeding the garden today. I’ll see you later, alright Ann?”  
Ann pulled her hand out her pocket, using it to tuck a stray piece of hair behind an ear.   
“Sure.”  
“See you later!” was tossed over Nat’s shoulder as she scooped up her shoes and skipped out of the clearing, seemingly happy with the resolution of their conversation.  
~  
Ann had lain on the grass next to the pond for hours after Nat left and thought about what to say to Nat and what was happening. Frustrated by the lack of information and general guesswork that she had to work with, Ann had gone to the library and spent the next few hours surrounded by books. The only reference she could find to anything was an old German fairytale.   
It told of a host of terrifying spider-creatures, which only existed when a human willingly accepted them and their kind. After many years, people grew to fear the spiders and the last human to willingly accept them was a sorcerer. He made a charm that’s purpose was to bend and twist the thoughts of the wearer until they loved the spiders as much as he did. The race was known as Veraltet Spinne. That was the part that freaked Ann out the most, because those were the words carved in Nat’s necklace.   
That was yesterday, now Nat was missing and nobody knew where she had gone. Her parents had left on some sort of business trip Ann hadn’t gotten the details of and all the neighbors were unhelpful and old. Nat wasn’t answering the phone or any of her texts. Ann pulled the phone away from her ear where she had just tried to call Nat for the 37th time and threw it onto her bed, huffing in irritation. Turning, she stomped out the door and ran to the last place she saw Nat, searching for anything that might tell her where Nat was.   
Arriving at the pond, panting and out of breath, Ann grit her teeth together with frustration. Nat wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere. Ann folded her legs underneath her and sank onto her back in the middle of the clearing, glaring at the late afternoon sky as if it had the answers to all her problems but wouldn’t give them to her. Shoving her hands into her pockets, she scowled.   
What am I supposed to do now? I went to the police earlier and they just said that she most likely went on the trip with her parents. They completely ignored me, and I still don’t know what happened to Ann! I even called her parents; Mrs. Harlow said that they had left Nat at home.  
Ann’s hands curled into fists inside of her pockets. She wanted to scream and shout at those policemen until they helped her look, but they would probably just throw her out.   
“Stupid jerks,” She muttered under her breath. Why couldn’t anyone in this town stop and listen to what she was saying for a few minutes? He teeth gnawed on her lower lip and her fist shoved deeper into her pockets as she tried to figure out to do now. Ann paused as something pressed into her right hand, grabbing it and pulling it out of her pocket, she found the old mummified paw.   
Like some old paw’s gonna be useful in any way.  
Ann pushed her hand back into her pocket, still gripping the paw, and glared up at the sky once more, thoughts settling upon the apparent source of her current misery: Nat’s necklace.   
“I wish Nat had never brought that thing back from Germany,” was muttered to the soft breeze, which had sprung up and ruffled all the trees. Wouldn’t that be great? Because then Nat would stop being weird and they could back to being best friends without any creepy spiders.   
~  
Ann was still lying on the ground as Nat emerged from one of the trails leading into the forest.   
“Hi, Ann!” Nat cheered, waving an arm, joyful grin on her face.  
“Wha- Nat?” Ann shot up and raced toward her friend pulling her into a tight hug.  
“Where were you!?”  
Nat shrugged. “I dunno, I went to bed last night and woke up in the forest with a headache. “Weird right?” Nat was acting normal, if not somewhat more oblivious than she usually did, and it was such a relief! Though, it was strange how she didn’t seem to care that she woke up in the middle of the forest.  
“Are you ok?” Ann demanded, pulling back to scan her friend.  
“Yeah, I’m fine!”  
“...Where’s that necklace?”  
Nat gave her a questioning look and giggled, brilliant blue eyes boring into Ann’s green ones. “What necklace? You know that I don’t wear jewelry, Ann.”  
Ann just relaxed because it was gone and they didn’t have to worry about it anymore.  
“Nothing, Nat,” she responded, grin growing on her face as Nat linked arm with her. They headed toward Ann’s house, talking about random topics. The topic of Nat’s disappearance and the past week never came up. Ann didn’t care what had happened, she was just happy to have her best friend back. Maybe she would tell Nat what had happened, but for now, Ann was going to leave the topic of spiders alone. A mummified paw was tossed onto a dresser once more and partially forgotten. It may have been used as a good luck charm a few times, but neither Ann nor Nat found out what it really was.  
~  
Linette Samara was the happiest she had ever been. All accounts she should have felt incredibly guilty, pawning off the Spinne’s necklace to her ignorant cousin. Nathalie was such a sweet girl too, but Linette’s only care was getting rid of the thing. She tried, again and again, to lose it over the years, but no one wanted to buy it. Every time she tossed in a garbage bin or into the forest it would show up again in a jacket pocket or on a kitchen counter.   
Her younger siblings didn’t understand her pressing need to be rid of it, but they knew something was wrong with it. After it always being associated with their Aunt’s death, Valerie and Melody avoided it like the plague.   
Aunt Dreda had been the sweetest and best aunt one might ask for. She was the kind that snuck you candy when your parents weren’t looking and took you on trips. Her boyfriend had gifted her the necklace and was out of the door less than 24 hours after she put it on. Even though Linette was seven when it happened, she could still remember the swirling purply black eyes of her Aunt and spiders that scuttled and looked like they were dripping shadows when they moved. Linette’s father had torn the necklace from Dreda’s neck and threw it in the nearby river. Her Aunt had collapsed as was proclaimed dead a few hours later.   
“Spider venom,” the doctors said, “that’s what killed her.”  
The necklace had shown up on the bedside table of Aunt Dreda’s deathbed. After that, they could never get rid of it. It always showed up at the house the next morning, intact and pristine as ever. As the years went on Linette’s father had drunk himself into an early grave and her mother threw herself into work and business trips until she could hardly remember her youngest daughters names.  
So, she should probably feel guilty, giving Nathalie something like that. But she wasn’t. What Linette didn’t know was that Nathalie Harlow had a best friend, one with a mummified monkey’s paw. She was entirely unprepared to wake up one morning and find a lovely spider charm on the end of a chain sitting in the middle of her kitchen table.   
Picking up the charm with trembling hands, as if it might come alive, she wished that this was a dream. Unfortunately, Linette Samara didn’t have any magical wish-granting artifacts and it was not a dream. Trembling worse now, she stumbled out the door and around the house. She stopped at the riverbank and hurled the wretched thing into the water with all her might. Even as she turned back to the house, she knew it would be back tomorrow morning, possibly even tonight. Linette went through the motions of making breakfast almost mechanically, as if on autopilot. Eventually, all she could do was slump into a chair and scrunch her eyes closed, taking trembling breaths. Images of those soulless dark eyes, a strange mix of purple and black, set into an utterly blank visage surged through her mind.   
Please, God, let this be a dream. Tell me this isn’t real.


End file.
